The Man of the House

Chapter 23

I stayed in my room for the rest of the night. At one point, I heard mom inquiring about me, but Mackenzie just said that I must not be feeling well. As a result, they seemed to have left me alone. I napped for a while, but because I hadn’t done that much all day, I ended up finding myself waking up. It was late at night, and a look at the clock said it was past midnight. However, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get back to sleep.

I decided to get myself a drink of water, so I got up and left the bedroom to head for the kitchen. The lights were off in most of the girl’s rooms, but I found one notable exception. There was a light coming from Dawn’s room, which was uncharacteristically open a crack. As I approached her room, I heard the familiar sounds of a video game being played. It sounded like a first-person shooter. I glanced into the crack, but at that angle, I could only see the screen of the television.

It was a game that I recognized, or rather I at least recognized the IP. The actual game was one that was brand new. In this large family with only one parent, there was no way I could afford things like new video games. That’s why every game I owned came from a used bargain bin. Yet, Dawn had somehow managed to obtain a copy of a game that only came out last week.

Not only was I jealous, but I also felt a bit of frustration. How could mom allow her to buy that game, all while telling me that money didn’t grow on trees? Forgetting my glass of water, I shoved right into the room. As the door opened, it revealed more of Dawn’s room. Her room was somewhat messy. The girl herself was sitting on the floor at the side of her bed, leaning back and using the bed as a back support. She had a baggy shirt and panties on but was wearing nothing else.

There were piles of laundry everywhere, and the familiar glow of a computer screen on her desk. It was playing music, an alternative band that I might have also listened to. When she noticed me, her eyes widened.

“What are you doing?” She demanded, her face filled with anger.

“Shut up!” I snapped, walking over and plopping down right next to her. “I’ve had a bad day.”

“I didn’t say you could be in here. Get the hell out of my room.”

“And I said shut up!” I snapped back. “Give me a controller!”

Dawn was a bit stuck. Normally, she would have run to mom, but mom was asleep. Seeing as Dawn was up past bedtime, there was no way she would go to mom and wake her up. She’d get an even worse grounding than I would. Although she might spin some lie tomorrow about how I was causing her trouble to get me punished, I wasn’t really caring at the moment.

Dawn looked surprised at my sudden request. After a second of staring at me and realizing I didn’t intend to move, she sighed in annoyance, reached out and tossed me a second remote that was hiding in her TV stand. It was wireless, so I just had to hit the middle button to turn it on. Even that was fancy. I had one extra remote, and all I could afford was a third-party corded controller.

She licked her lips. “I don’t think you can handle this game. You should play something simpler, like Minecraft.”

I shot her a derisive look. “Um… no… just start the game.”

“Fine…” She sighed as she went through and set up for a multiplayer match.

Once the menu loaded, I started flipping through looking for a model I liked. “What the hell? Why are all the characters female? Where is a male one?”

I was flipping from one female soldier unit to the next. There were dozens of different variations. It was really ridiculous.

“Don’t start about that male activist bullshit.” She snorted. “Look, the medic is a guy.”

“Who wants to be a damn medic? I want to kill something.”

“Then, just choose a girl! Whoever heard of a male soldier anyway. It’s mostly women in the military.”

“Huh… wait…” I blinked, “It didn’t change?”

“What?”

“Ah… um… is it okay for women to show their chests to men?”

She raised an eyebrow and looked at me. “Maybe if she’s stacked. A guy wouldn’t want to see what I have under here…”

She looked down at her own chest and frowned, but I was focused on the answer she just gave me. It left me feeling completely floored. I had misunderstood things earlier. When I passed out, the world hadn’t changed back. Women were still like men, and men were like women. That girl… she must have just been… well… girly. I couldn’t stop but chuckle to myself.

I had grown so upset over finding out the world was changed back. When the world was different, I complained about it every step of the way. However, once it returned, I had moped about it. It was hard for even me to understand what I wanted. I could only laugh to myself, which seemed to unnerve Dawn and make her even antsier.

“Are you going to pick?” Dawn demanded irritably.

“Okay.” I picked a character outfitted with bombs, which was a female character, apparently.

We started the match, and at first, I was rusty since I had only played a version of the game two iterations ago and didn’t recognize any of the maps. Dawn seemed to expect as much and had a smug expression on her face as I died first in the match and had a poor death-to-kill ratio.

 However, I picked things up quickly, and by the fifth match, I was playing nearly as good as she was. We were on the same team. We were on the same time, so I started to work with her. In particular, I noticed she was in a corner sniping, so I started leading the enemy into her line of sight. It ended up working out particularly well. I was impressed at her skills, and after the fifth time, she sniped an idiot who was baited by me, we ended up receiving a message.

It was a girl, and I got excited until I read the message. “

“Quit sniping you cheating fucktard.” I read.

“Ah!” Dawn blushed, “D-don’t read those! Girls on the internet…”

I was already typing back. “Quit being a little bitch and getting sniped, you noob.”

Dawn’s mouth fell open as I clicked send. We got a message back.

“Y-you play like a boy!”

“I am a boy, dipshit.”

“Srsly? Hey, how are you? Have girlfriend?”

“Haha… yeah, she’s the one sniping you!”

As if to add insult to injury, just as she was typing a response, Dawn sniped her. We ended up receiving a stream of expletives calling me all kinds of names, so we ended up blocking and reporting her. We ended up winning that match by a lot. I let out a laugh, feeling a bit of relief from all of that stress that had accumulated the last few days.

Dawn had put down her remote and was watching me out of the corner of her eye. She was wearing a curious expression and seemed on the cusp of wanting to say something.

“Noah… you’re not… how I remember.” She said awkwardly.

“How was I?” I asked in a low voice, not glancing over at her.

“You used to hide in your room all day.”

“Isn’t that you?”

“Yeah, but my isolation was deliberate. For you, it was like you thought you were better than us. You’d always cook, but then you ran back into your room and kept the door shut all the time. You liked to pretend you didn’t even have sisters.”

“Is that so…”

“It is… are you really a gamer?”

I chuckled. “Didn’t I get more kills than you in that last match?”

“Yeah, but you also died more.”

“You know… Dawn, there is nothing wrong with your body.”

“Huh?” She flinched at the sudden change of conversation.

“Your body. You’re a little chubbier than the rest of your sisters, but not fat. Your boobs aren’t very big. But you got cute glasses and a nerdy vibe. You are really cute. It’s a pretty big turn on.”

“Sh-shut up!” She blushed, looking away. “I know I’m not attractive. It’s not like any guy is interested.”

“Most guys are interested in all types of women. I mean, you got the beautiful supermodels, but I think the vast majority would take what they can get. Breast size doesn’t really matter. Big love handles, or a big tummy… we’d overlook that. Even breast acne can be ignored.”

“Ah! I d-d-don’t have breast acne…” She covered her chest.

“I’m just saying… I think I’ve realized that it’s the same either way. Just like guys can be attracted to just about any girl, girls can be attracted to just about any guy. I used to think I’d need to be swol, with six-pack abs, to get the interest of a woman. However, as I see things from the other side, I’m starting to realize that’s all an illusion. Most guys would never date a Barbie, and most girls are probably fine with a guy without muscles and maybe a gut.”

“Barbie? You mean Ken’s girlfriend?”

I laughed gently. “Yeah… something like that.”

She watched me for a minute and then shook her head in agitation. “What is up with you?”

I finally glanced over at her. “Do you want to know?”

“You’ll tell me?”

“I’ve already told two of my sisters. Neither believed me, so I guess it doesn’t matter who I tell. You can just claim it’s related to my head injury if reality is too much for you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Try me!”

“Okay…” I leaned back and sighed. “A bit less than a week ago, when I was hit by the car, everything changed. You see, before I was hit, the world was a patriarchy ruled by men. Men liked sex, cars, and women. They acted like… well, how women act now. Video games. Action films. Sports. Most video games had male characters because men play video games.”

“But it’s women who fight the wars, makes no sense to have men…”

“That too… it was men who fought in the wars. I mean, your world doesn’t even make sense if you think about it. Why would you send someone who can get pregnant and must carry a baby for 9 months into battle? Wouldn’t that be a huge liability?”

“That’s actually a regular problem! They talk about it in the news…”

I shook my head. “I’m not saying everything made sense in my old world either. I’m just saying what is. My mind is wired like a girl’s mind… I like video games and sex. In my old world, you all treated me like leaper. I did remain in my room, but because I didn’t want the mean and ugly looks the lot of you always gave me. I felt like an outcast in my own home, the only guy. So, I sat in my room and jacked off.”

“Ah!”

“Don’t act surprised. I jack off! Oh, and I found your freaking toy, you left it on when you left yesterday.”

“Ah-ah-ah… th—th-th-that!”

“I said I don’t care!” I shrugged. “The fact you masturbate is actually kind of hot. I mean, you’re my sister, so I’m not like… ah… I don’t know… the same way that me mentioning I jack off affects you, I have a similar reaction!”

“…”

“And I play video games!” I gestured to her console. “But how the hell did you afford this? My system is last-gen, and I have to buy all my games used! How did you get a $90 special edition of the game?”

“You noticed?”

“Yeah! This can’t be mom’s money at all!”

Dawn shook for a moment, but then she looked at me as if she was considering something. After a moment, she nodded to herself and met my eyes.

“Fine… I’ll tell you how I make money, but you have to promise that you will tell no one!”

“I can keep a secret.”

“Yeah… well, whether you’re honestly ‘like a woman’ or not will be answered in a second.” She stood up. “Come, I’ll show you how I make money.”

I followed her as she walked up to her computer. She typed a bit and then up appeared a website. I glanced at it, scrolling down. I looked away when my eyes landed on a dick.

“What the hell? I don’t want to see a dick!”

“S-sorry… I suppose I’d react that way if it was pictures of pussies.” She said, “Um, here. Just look at the title.”

I glanced at it and saw the name, Ms. Pervert’s Peepshow.

“A… porn website? No… upskirts? Or I guess you call them… upshorts?”

“That’s how I bring in money.” She said with a breath. “I post images of guy’s exposed by hidden camera online!”